A Broken Tale
by Sailorstar165
Summary: Lavi always dreamed of being in a fairy tale. Kanda's stuck in one. Fun. LavixKanda, Co-write with Shimanishiki, Beauty and the Beast with a twist.
1. Prologue

"Why are they packing my things?"

The dark-haired lord looked up from his account book and stared into the eyes of his son. "You're thirteen, plenty old enough to be on your own."

"You're... kicking me out?"

The man frowned. His son looked so much like him... and yet... in his mother's dark blue eyes, there was something wild... almost beastly. "Yes. I never want to see you again." The dark-haired man looked back down at his account book. The red ink was better than looking the incarnation of his sin in the face. "You'll be fine."

"But where am I to go?" the child asked. "And who will go with me?"

"No one will be going with you," the lord said. "There are some servants already employed at that castle."

"But where is it?" the boy asked, impatience and panic making his voice crack.

The man gestured for his son to leave. "You needn't worry about that. Mana, take him away." He held out the account book he'd been studying to Mana, who took it and nodded.

"But where am I going?" the boy shouted to his father as the servant ushered him from the room. "Why do I have to go alone?"

"You won't go alone," Mana whispered once he'd shut the door behind him. "Allen will go with you."

* * *

The boy left that evening with his personal servant and friend, Allen. The ride was long and went late into the night, so late, that the lord's son fell asleep. But Allen stayed awake and stared out the window, running what his father had said over and over in his mind.

Mana's words had been vague, but Mana was always like that. Still, his words before they'd left had made no sense. "Stay with the young master, no matter what form he may take," was all his father had told him, and he wouldn't say any more, even though Allen had asked. Of course, his father had given him a note to give his friend and master in a few days time. Allen was just itching to open it, but he knew it wouldn't be right. In most places, especially the cruel castle they were leaving, it was a crime to read another person's mail, and in the lord's castle, resulted in losing an eye. Even if the crazed looby**1** wasn't around, Allen was scared of the envelope in his pocket.

At last, the carriage came to a bumpy stop. The sky was just starting to turn pink with the rising sun. Allen helped his master from the carriage. He was surprised when the boy's skin felt too hot against his own. The young master looked ill. His face was ashen and his breath was coming in shallow bursts.

"Y-young master?" Allen asked nervously. "Are you all right?"

Allen's master looked up at the castle and only spoke one word: "Mom..." The young master collapsed in a heap and screamed in pain.

That's when all the trouble began...

* * *

Lavi looked up from his book. He wasn't sure what had drawn his attention from the book he'd been reading so intently moments before, but it seemed important... More important, Lavi was sad to say, than the latest romance novel he had hidden in the dictionary his guardian and master Bookman thought he was reading.

Speaking of which...

_WHACK!_

"Ouch! Bookman! What'd you do that for?"

Bookman glared at the boy from next to the man driving the cart. "What are you reading?"

"The dictionary," Lavi replied innocently.

"There were too many words for that to have been a dictionary."

"Um... Dictionaries and words kind of go hand-in-hand, Bookman."

"You were reading it too intently for it to be just a dictionary."

_Damn it,_ the redheaded child thought. He'd dug himself a deep hole to get out of. "They were... interesting words?"

"Like?"

"Supercalafrajalisticexpialadocious?"

Bookman raised an eyebrow. "That's not even a word."

_Shit._ Lavi cast around his brain for an excuse. "Have you looked it up?"

"I've memorized the dictionary."

"_This_ dictionary?"

"That one, and three others in four languages."

"Freak," Lavi muttered. He received another whack on the head for his impertinence.

The old man took the novel Lavi had hidden and hid it among his things. Little did he know Lavi was smart enough to bring a second book to read and ignore his studies with. "Put your eye patch on, Jr. We're almost in town."

"But I can't read good with it."

"Well."

"Well what?"

"Read _well_."

"Stupid grammar." He got hit a third time.

"Just put the eye patch on. Do you want to be chased out of this town too?"

"It wasn't might fault they were superstitious freaks."

This time, Bookman didn't hit the now ducking Lavi. "I know you—"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That scream!" Even though it was a retarded thing to do, Lavi stood in the back of the wagon on tiptoe to see their surroundings better. "I heard someone scream just now!"

Bookman shrugged. "It was probably an owl."

"Owls don't sound that human."

"Obviously you've never heard one. Put your eye patch on."

Lavi stuck his tongue out at Bookman's back and put the eye patch on. Even if the old panda didn't believe him, Lavi knew what he'd heard. There was something about these woods, and Lavi was going to find out what.

* * *

**1 Slightly stolen from the Beka Cooper series. A "looby" is a nutcase.**

**Well, another co-write from us!**

_This one might be our last co-write together..._

**Yeah... Shim's moving away, so we won't physically be next to each other, but we'll try our best through email!**

_Yay to the world wide web! And if that doesn't work, we'll figure out something._

**She might just have to come back for this. XD Anyway, tell us what you think!**


	2. The Haunted Wood

"Hello, Lavi."

Lavi walked into the small bookstore and smiled at the greeting. "Afternoon, Bak," he said. "You too, Fou," he called to the girl sorting things in the back room. He walked over to the counter and dug around his satchel for his wallet.

"Here are the books Bookman ordered." He pulled out a stack of books and then added another title for his best customer. "And this one's for you."

"How'd you get this?" Lavi asked, barely holding back the excitement that shown in his emerald green eye.

"Oh, a little bargaining here, a little haggling there," Bak said vaguely. He watched Lavi flip through the book. It was just like when he'd first come to the town five years before with his guardian and master, Bookman. The strange little apprentice had wandered into the newly opened bookshop looking for some history texts with his master, but had stopped in front of the romance section and stared with his one eye at all the books. Bookman had had a tough time pulling him away from the novels that time and hadn't trusted him to come alone to pick up various books for two years.

Lavi brought Bak back from his reminiscence with a simple statement: "I could kiss you right now, you know that?"

Bak didn't get a chance to respond before Fou called from the back room, "He doesn't swing that way, and you know it."

"Yeah, that's what you claim," Lavi replied jokingly. He paid for the books and carefully hid the romance fantasy novel in a secret pocket he'd added to his bag. If Bookman knew he was still reading the stuff rather than the history he was supposed to be studying, Lavi would never hear the end of it. It was better to keep them hidden.

"By the way," Fou said, putting some newer books on the shelves. Why she bother, Lavi didn't know. There were only a bunch of illiterate boobs and old people who hated new things in this town. Maybe it was just something to do. She finished her stack and turned to finish her statement, "Tyki's up to something again. Might want to ask your spies for details."

"Thanks for the warning, Fou!" Lavi closed his bag and waved. "See you guys next week!"

Outside, the summer day was hot and still. Too still, in fact. Only the kids were about, taking the chance to splash in the fountain without risk of being yelled at. None of their parents were around shopping or sitting at the fountain, which was good for Lavi.

These street-smart kids were Lavi's spies. They knew everything that went on in the town, from the mayor's house on the south side to the chapel to the north. Since Lavi lived a mile or so outside town in an old farmhouse with Bookman, these kids were Lavi's best bet at keeping one step ahead of Tyki, the resident huntsman and owner of the hunting lodge. Tyki was after Lavi's heart, or perhaps only his body, and Lavi didn't want any of that, so he trusted—and bribed—the kids to keep him informed of the loser's movements.

The children looked up when Lavi called them and splashed over to the edge. "Lavi! We got big news!"

"I figured. What's Tyki up to now?"

The littlest girl, who lived next door to the chapel, got pushed to the front of the gaggle of children. "Tyki's got all the grown ups settin' up a wedding at the chapel. He was sayin' some'n about proposin' to ya and getting' ya ta marry him."

Lavi frowned. He'd tried this two months ago and failed then. What made him think doing the same thing again would result in anything different?

The children all held their hands out expectantly. Lavi laughed and dug in his satchel for what they wanted: candy. He always had a ton of it on him in case he needed information from the kids. They were willing to spill the beans on anything as long they were well paid for it, and Lavi always made sure of that.

"You guys are lifesavers," Lavi said as he passed out the bonbons. Once all the candy was handed out, he turned east and started wandering in the direction of the forest and his favorite hiding spot.

"See ya, Lavi!" all the children called, their mouths full of candy.

"See ya."

* * *

It was much cooler under the cover of the trees. The birds were chirping happily in the trees, the flowers on the forest floor were in full bloom and smelled wonderful, and best of all, Tyki wasn't around to spoil it. No one was. Only Lavi ever dared to venture this far into the supposedly haunted forest, and because he was the only one, Lavi used it as his hiding place and the long way home whenever Tyki decided to try something.

Today it was just the long way home. He wasn't planning on hanging around the outside of the castle that the path passed by. He was just walking by when something caught his eye.

He looked up and stared hard at one of the upper windows of the castle. He saw a shadowy figure sitting on the sill, apparently looking over the castle grounds. When the figure noticed Lavi, it flitted out of sight into the castle.

"Hey, wait!" Lavi shouted to the figure he'd seen. "Come back!" But the figure didn't return.

Lavi stood there, staring at where the person had been sitting. Many said that the castle was haunted or that the Devil himself had taken up residence there, but Lavi had never believed it. He'd wanted to believe it was true, but he doubted that there was any possibility that the place was really haunted. It wasn't like he could check. The gates were all locked shut and too high to climb.

"Mr. Ghost!" Lavi shouted again to the window. He didn't get a response, not that he'd really expected one. _I wonder if that was the old owner,_ he thought. _It must be nice, living in an old castle with all the fancy stuff._

Lavi had always imagined himself in a castle like that. He'd always wanted to go to a ball in a big fancy ballroom and be the only one without a partner. Then the prince of the castle would come down and ask him to dance. Then they'd fall in love and the prince would ask Lavi to stay after the ball, so they could—

A boom of thunder cut off Lavi's thoughts. The red-haired boy looked up at the sky just as a raindrop hit his face. Apparently, sometime during his fantasy the sky had clouded over. They were in for a really bad storm.

The drizzle turned to a downpour before Lavi could even think of moving. "Shit," Lavi grumbled. He was getting soaked, even with the tree cover. At least his bag was waterproof. Bookman would've killing him if the books got wet.

Lavi turned and ran down the muddy path leading out of the forest and to home. He was so busy running that he didn't see the shadow go back to the window and watch him leave.

* * *

"I'm home!" Lavi called into the old, creaky farmhouse he and Bookman lived in. He pulled off his boots so the old man wouldn't yell at him again for tracking mud in the house.

Bookman entered from the kitchen and looked Lavi up and down. "You're soaked. What possessed you to stay out in the rain so long?"

Lavi rolled his eyes. "It's Tuesday, remember? Tyki's returned from his hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere and was waiting for me in the chapel."

"Right."

Lavi was glad to know Bookman was on his side in this whole predicament, even if it was for the historian's own reasons and not for Lavi's wellbeing. Bookmen weren't supposed to fall in love, get distracted by other people, and so on and so forth. Being a Bookman was basically like being ordained in the name of history rather than God, which was why Bookman was helping to keep Tyki away from Lavi. Not that he really had to worry about Lavi falling in love with the loser. Lavi couldn't stand the pea-brained hunter.

Before Lavi even had his jacket off there was a knock at the front door—Lavi had come in from the back.

"I'm not here!" Lavi mouthed to the Bookman before running upstairs with the books still in his satchel. He'd hand them over to Bookman once their uninvited guest was gone. It didn't take a genius to know it was Tyki out in this weather to check up on him.

Bookman opened the front door just as Lavi shut the door to his room. Because the house was set up with the stairs was right by the front door and Lavi's room right by the stairs, Lavi could always hear the conversations going on there if he pressed his ear against his door and stayed silent. It was a little harder to hear today with the rain pelting the roof, but Lavi could still make out what was said.

"Good morning, Bookman." That was Tyki's voice. Lavi couldn't help but make a face. "Lavi wouldn't happen to be home, would he?"

"I'm afraid not," Bookman said calmly. Lavi could just picture the short old man leaning back to look up at the tall hunter. "He went out to get books and hasn't come back yet. He might've taken the path through Pesotto Forest on his way back."

Lavi heard Tyki curse. Even the great huntsman peed his pants when he thought of the haunted woods.

"You could always try to find him there," Bookman continued as if he hadn't noticed Tyki's reaction. "That boy's probably waiting for the rain to let up under a tree somewhere."

"Then I'll go find him," Tyki said at last. Lavi smiled to himself. He himself had had to wade through some pretty deep puddles to get back home. Tyki would be miserably wandering the wood for hours looking for him. It may have been cruel to enjoy Tyki's pain, but Lavi thought the huntsman deserved every bit of it.

"Good day, Tyki Mikk," Bookman said before closing the door. "It's all clear, Lavi. Go take a bath and warm up before you catch your death."

Lavi peeked out the door. "Yes, sir."

* * *

"My lord? What are you doing awake? It's still early."

The lord in question looked up, his yellow eyes glowing in the darkened room. "That boy was back."

His white-haired servant approached the window his lord was sitting at and looked out it into the rain. "Well, he isn't there anymore, my lord."

"I think he saw me this time."

"So that's what the _Mr. Ghost_ shouts were about."

The lord nodded, then said, "I want to meet him."

"My lord, you can't!"

"Why not?"

"Not everyone is as accepting of you as we, your servants, are. Don't forget all those that ran away once they discovered you in this form."

The lord looked back out over the grounds at where the mysterious redhead had stood. "I suppose you're right."

* * *

_I hate homework. I don't like math._

**As you can see, I'm typing while she's doing math homework. I'm also helping her. :)**

_I love our messed up fairy tales. :)_

**Please tell us what you think!**


	3. The Castle in the Forest

_"Lavi, I'm leaving for a week. There's a meeting I must attend. Can I trust you to stay out of trouble?"_

_"Bookman, I'm eighteen. You can trust me."_

_"Like I trusted you last time?"_

_"Hey, there were termites. I just tripped up the stairs and everything went with me."_

_Bookman raised an eyebrow. "Right. Just don't break anything. And make sure to study!"_

_"Yeah, yeah..."_

* * *

Lavi yawned and stretched out. He'd finished his tenth romance novel before his nap in the wheat field and was now ready to make it look like he'd bothered to study. Bookman would be back soon. It had been a—

"Oh shit!" Lavi said, sitting up suddenly. Bookman had been gone for a week and a half. Bookman had said he'd be back in a week, and the old fart was never took that much longer to get home.

"Lavi!"

Lavi ducked back down into the wheat. He recognized the voice calling him. It was Roger, Tyki's assistant and hunting buddy. Not wanting to deal with the loser, Lavi decided to crawl away under the cover of wheat.

"Lavi! There you are!"

Of course Roger had to look to the edge of the field just as Lavi crawled out. Sighing, Lavi stood and turned. "What do you want?"

"Um... I... I wanted to ask you a big favor."

"If it's about Tyki, I'm not interested."

Roger frowned. The favor was about Tyki. "Why don't you give him a chance? He's not that bad once you get to know him."

Lavi laughed out loud and shook his head. "No relationships, remember?"

"But Bookman doesn't have to know!"

"I don't feel like suffering ass pains every day."

"He can be a gentle lover."

Lavi choked mid-laugh. "And you would know this _because_?"

Roger turned a deep crimson. "Every time you dump him, he takes his... er... _frustrations_ out on me."

"And that's gentle?"

"When he's not taking out his frustrations."

Lavi rolled his eyes. "You'll just have to suffer, then." He turned.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"On a trip," Lavi said quickly. "Bookman forgot something and I have to deliver it."

"Would you like to borrow a horse?"

"I'll walk." Lavi didn't want to think of what he'd have to do to pay Roger back. Or possibly Tyki, as it was probably his horse and not his lackey's.

Lavi picked up the pace once he reached the road and jogged back to the house. He threw some spare clothes and some food into his bag and went to the door, but not before grabbing one of his many hidden novels and pocketing some money. He paused and, deciding better on bringing the book, set it in his room. He really needed to pay attention to where he was going and not keep his nose stuck in a book.

It was mid-afternoon by the time Lavi finally decided he had everything he needed and started for Pesotto Forest. Bookman's meeting had been on the other side of the forest, and the only passable path was the one running by the castle. Every path had become overgrown from lack of travelers, but Lavi had cleared this one soon after coming to town.

Traveling now in the sunny afternoon, Lavi couldn't figure out why everyone thought the place was haunted. The sun filtered through the branches, making the forest seem almost magical, like anything could happen, and of course that led Lavi to letting his mind wander.

He hiked up the hill and stopped at the top. Someone else had hiked up the other side at the same time and they'd met at the top. Normally, Lavi would have been a little confused, as no one ever came through here, but would have just continued on his way. This time, however, the other traveler had a black horse with four white stockings on his legs**1** on a lead rope. Lavi recognized the creature instantly.

"What are you doing with my master's horse?" he asked the woman.

The woman froze. She looked from Lavi to the horse, then back. "I'm sorry!" she screeched before turning and running away with the horse in tow.

"Hey! Stop thief!" Lavi shouted. When she didn't stop, he chased after her. The woman was fast, but Lavi knew the way. There was only one clear path, after all, and he was sure The Millenium Earl—the horse—would try to slow her down.

Lavi tripped on a root and smashed into the ground. Cursing, Lavi checked quickly to make sure he hadn't sprained or hurt himself in any other way. Once he was sure he was okay, Lavi stood and started running again. If that woman had Bookman's horse, then she must know where Bookman was, too.

He kept going and going, then stopped in his tracks. The hoof prints had led up to the gate of the castle he'd always dreamed of going in. Not only that, the gates were open. Now he had a legitimate reason _and_ a way to get in!

Carefully, he stepped into the courtyard and sneaked around the stone walls. The place was perfect, exactly as he'd imagined it, and this was only the outside! He couldn't even begin to imagine what the inside was like. Well, he could, but he was sure his imagination didn't do it any justice.

The hoof prints led all the way around the castle and to a giant stable. He pushed open the stable doors and peeked inside. The only living thing inside was The Earl, who whinnied impatiently at Lavi as if to say, "Well? Where's my apple?"

"Hey there, boy," Lavi whispered, petting his horse's nose. Despite Bookman's belief, the horse only listened to Lavi. The only reason he listened to Bookman was because Lavi told him too.

"Thief!"

Lavi turned. "I could say the same of you, buddy," he snapped at the white-haired boy who came in. "Why's my master's horse here? Where's my master?"

The boy tilted his head. "Master...?" Then it dawned on him. "You mean the short old guy?"

"Does he look like a panda?" The boy nodded. "That's him. So where is he?"

The boy was about to say something, but stopped. "I'll take you to him," he said slowly, cautiously. "Follow me."

"Why're you being so nice all of a sudden?" Lavi asked suspiciously. "Do you live in this crazy castle or something?"

"I work here."

"For who?"

"For the master."

Lavi glared. He hated vague responses, and this was the vaguest he'd ever heard. "Who's your master?"

The boy stayed silent and just led Lavi through the small servant's entry in the back and down a flight of stone steps. They reached a wooden door, which the boy opened, and he stepped aside to let Lavi through.

"Your master is in here. I'm afraid he angered the master, but I'll go see if I can find the keys. Please wait here until I return."

With that, the servant shut the door calmly, then bolted. He ran up the stairs, taking them three at a time until he reached the nicer staircase leading to the master bedroom. He ran down the hall until he reached the door at the end and slammed it open. He knew his master would be sore about it, but he didn't care at the moment.

"Master!" the boy shouted. He yanked the sheets his master was curled up in away. "Master! Wake up!" He instantly regretted the action.

His master swung hard and smacked him hard in the face. Luck only kept the boy from getting more than a bruise. The boy was used to it, though. He'd gotten this reaction dozens of times since they were little.

"Master! The boy's here! In the castle!"

The master jumped out of bed and grabbed some clothes. "But it's not Tuesday! And what's he doing inside?!"

The boy stepped forward and helped his master with the clothes. "I let him in, sir."

"What? Why?"

"We... er... locked up his master."

The master froze. "Shit. Did he seem offended? Frightened?"

"Actually... he was kind of angry until I showed him in. I think you blew the first impression, though."

The master cursed again. "Where is he?"

"In the dungeon with his master."

"Hurry up! We can't leave him in the dungeon."

The servant finished with the buttons. "He didn't seem to mind the dungeon, actually. He seemed... sort of curious about it."

The master paused. "Maybe I should wait until sunset."

"That's not a good idea. It'll be a few hours until then, and he seemed rather impatient."

"Well, I can't go looking like this!" He gestured to him. His clothes were perfect, but his appearance would probably frighten away their visitor. "Take him to a parlor! Give him something to eat. Entertain him until then!"

The servant shook his head. "I don't think he'll leave his master alone in the dungeon, my lord."

He cursed again. "Then find the key!"

"I seem to recall you threw it into fountain."

Again, a curse. "Go find it!"

"What about entertaining the visitor?"

"Damn you to hell, Moyashi!"

"Whatever you say, my lord." The boy stood aside. "You ought to speak with him. This boy seems rather odd. I don't think he'll be bothered by your... appearance." He chose his words carefully. It was never smart to wake up his master during the day and upset him right after.

"Fine," the master growled. "You win this time, but I swear, if you're wrong..."

"No one would believe him. They'll simply think he saw the 'ghost of the forest' that we spread rumors about." One of the other servants had spread it, and the servant boy himself had played the "ghost" perfectly. There were some bonuses to having white hair. "Besides, he seemed excited about you the other day when he thought you were 'Mr. Ghost.'"

The master grumbled, but followed his servant down the stairs to the less used part of the castle. The servant opened the door and said, "I'll be back in a few. I need to find the key still... Until then, my master wishes to speak to you." He bowed himself out and put a hand on his master's shoulder. "Good luck," he mouthed before heading for the indoor fountain to hunt for the missing key.

Lavi glanced at the shadowy figure standing in the doorway and recognized it instantly as the one he'd seen in the window. "So _you're_ the master of this castle?" he asked, standing and offering a hand. "I'm Lavi, nice to meet you."

The master didn't say anything. Instead, he turned his luminescent yellow eyes on his prisoner. "So you are this man's apprentice?"

"Sadly," Lavi replied innocently. "Um, should I ask why he's locked up?"

"I allowed him to shelter here from a rather nasty storm."

"That's hardly a crime, to spend the night." Lavi remembered the storm. It had been so windy all night long that he'd been afraid that their farmhouse would just blow over and that Bookman would blame him for it.

"I'm not finished. He tried to steal an extremely rare book before leaving the next morning."

"Now _that's_ a crime," Lavi replied. He turned to the dungeon cell behind him. "Shame on you, Bookman!"

"Shut it, Lavi."

Lavi stuck his tongue out at his master. He turned back to the master. "Are you going to let him out?"

"Not anytime soon, even if Allen finds that damned key."

"Allen?" Lavi repeated. "Oh! Your servant." He frowned. "You should let this old geezer out. He's rather important in the outside world, sir. I know!" He grinned at his solution. "How about I stay in his place? I'll be your prisoner instead."

Bookman swatted at him from behind the bars. "Moron! Don't promise things like that!"

But the master considered it. The redhead didn't seem to be lying about the old man being important, and he certainly seemed willing to stay for some reason. "Very well," he said when Allen returned with the key. "That is a fair trade, I think."

Allen unlocked the door and stepped aside for Bookman to step out. "Allen, show this man out," the master said, nodding to Bookman. "Lavi here has offered to stay in his master's place."

The servant's silver eyes widened. "What? But Master—"

"It will be fine, I assure you," the master said before Allen could voice his complaint. "Please show his master out, and make sure to avoid the library."

Allen nodded and left with Bookman following close behind. Once they were gone, the master turned to Lavi. "Why did you choose to stay in his place?"

Lavi grinned. There were three things in life he'd always wanted. First of all, he wanted to marry royalty, regardless of gender—though he'd prefer a prince any day. Second, he'd always wanted to stay in a dungeon or the highest room of the tallest tower at least once. Last, but not least, he'd always wanted to meet something magical and mystical and absolutely fantastic.

He decided in the end to reply with, "I've always wanted to stay in a castle, even the dungeon. This'll be awesome!"

"You won't be staying in the dungeon," the master said, turning to the door and walking up the dark steps. He paused when Lavi didn't follow. "Come with me."

"So I'll be in the highest room of the tallest tower?" Lavi asked hopefully.

"No. That's where princesses are held hostage."

"I know I'm not a girl, but I am being held hostage."

The master laughed. "You hardly seem like a hostage. Though, I'm sure you'll feel like one once we get upstairs."

"Why's that?" Lavi asked, but froze when the master opened the door and let the evening sun in.

The master of the castle was a black, furry beast with large catlike ears and a tail. His eyes were yellow and as catlike as the rest of him. Sharp claws adorned his hands and feet, making him frightening when he'd otherwise just be a little strange. Then there were the glinting fangs that Lavi saw when the master spoke again. "Care to change your mind? It's not too late."

Lavi didn't speak. He felt he didn't have to. What he felt he _had_ to do was reach up and touch the master's ears to check if they were real, which he promptly did. The master stiffened, yellow eyes wide with surprise. When Lavi scratched behind the ears, a strangled meow escaped the other man's throat.

"Don't do that!" the master snapped, pushing away Lavi's hand. The fact he was careful of his claws didn't escape Lavi's notice. "Don't _ever_ do that again!"

"Yes, Master," Lavi replied.

"Kanda."

"Kanda?"

"Yes, Kanda," the man replied, starting down the hall again. "That's my name. I'm certainly not your master."

Lavi tilted his head in minor confusion. "But... aren't I going to be your slave? I'm taking my master's place, aren't I?"

"You've done no crime," Kanda replied, leading Lavi up another stairway. "There is no reason you should be punished." The man stopped before one room and pushed the door open. "This is where you'll be staying. I'll send a servant up to get you anything you may need."

Lavi stepped into the room and could only gawk. Inside was an empty bookshelf—though he was certain he could get some books to fill it, judging by the beast's generosity—and a huge canopy bed that nearly reached the high, painted ceiling. There was a small table with a vase filled with what Lavi thought were silk flowers sitting in the middle. To the side of the room was a closet, that, upon closer inspection, contained clothes that Lavi could never have hoped to afford.

"Is it to your liking?" Kanda asked nervously when Lavi didn't say anything for a long time.

Only one thing came to Lavi's mind: "Holy shit, this room's bigger than my whole house."

* * *

**1 "Stockings" refer to horses with a different color on their legs that look, as the name suggests, like stockings. There's a superstition that a black horse with four white stockings is bad luck. At least, I think it's four... Could be three...**

_Kanda is hot in beast form mmeooow._

**...And on that note, we say, "See ya later, alligator!" Hope you enjoyed it!**


	4. DoubleLife

"He's late for dinner," Kanda muttered, chewing on his claw. "Where is he?"

"Probably lost," Allen said, remembering his first night at the castle. He'd been lost for a whole day in the twisting corridors.

"But I sent Lenalee to bring him down!" Kanda bit his claw and it snapped. He didn't care too much though. He'd have a broken nail, but so what? It would grow back in a day or so.

The dark-haired girl in question came down and shook her head. "Master Lavi isn't feeling too well. It seems he's come down with a bit of a cold. He said that if he rested, he'd be better by morning."

Kanda sighed. "Then bring some dinner up to him." He looked out the window and held up a clawed finger. "On second thought, I'll do it."

Allen glanced out the window and nodded. "I'll get you some fresh clothes."

* * *

Lavi sneezed and curled up in his bed. It wasn't that bad of a cold, but the maid had insisted he stay put. He was hungry and a little cold and actually really tired, but he didn't want to sleep yet. He was living in a castle with a beast, for crying out loud! He wanted to talk more to the mysterious creature, to ask him what it was like being furry, to ask him what it was like being in a castle.

There was a knock at the door and Lavi called, "Come in."

The door opened, revealing a handsome young man with long dark hair and deep, dark eyes. His skin was pale, as if he hadn't seen the sun in a long time, and his features delicate. If it weren't for what he said next, Lavi would have certainly thought him a woman.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice anything but a woman's.

"Huh? Oh, pretty good. Just a cold." Lavi smiled, then frowned. "Hey, who are you anyway? You're dressed too well to be a servant... Are you a prisoner here?"

The man, who was actually Kanda, didn't know what to say. "I guess you could say that," he admitted. He'd always thought of the castle as a sort of prison.

"Do you have a name?" Lavi asked, sitting up in his bed.

"Yuu."

"Yuu?"

"Yes, Yuu." Kanda wanted to kick himself. He should've given him his family name, not his first, but what was done was done.

"Nice ta meet ya, Yuu!" Lavi said, hopping out of bed. "I'm Lavi and—" he paused. "Is that tray of food for me?"

"Who else would it be for?" Kanda asked, holding out the tray for Lavi to take.

The redhead grinned. "Thanks, Yuu!" He plopped down on his bed with the food and started eating. "So why're you here?" he asked between bites. "Try to steal a book or something?"

"How did you lose your eye?" Kanda said, attempting to change the subject.

"I asked first."

"I asked second."

"Well, answer my question and I'll think about answering yours," Lavi said slyly.

"Think about? I want an actual answer."

"You're pretty grumpy."

_Because_ _I was woken up four hours earlier than usual!_ Kanda thought, but kept his mouth shut.

"What, cat got your tongue?" Lavi finished his meal and pushed the tray aside.

Kanda crossed the room and picked up the tray. Before he left, however, he took the napkin and wiped some sauce from the corner of Lavi's mouth. He then left and closed the door behind him.

"What was that?" Lenalee asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What was what?"

"_That_. You wiped his mouth for him."

"It wasn't anything," Kanda replied, handing the tray to Lenalee and walking away.

"Where are you going?!" Lenalee shouted. "I'm not done with you yet!"

Kanda stopped. "Then what do you want to say?"

The girl pursed her lips. He knew exactly what she wanted to say, and she knew he knew.

"I didn't lie to him," Kanda said at last.

"You didn't tell him the truth either!"

"Exactly." Kanda turned on his heel and started walking away.

* * *

Inside the room, Lavi listened to the whole shouting match outside. _What'd she mean when she said he didn't tell me the truth?_ Lavi thought sleepily. He rubbed his eye, as if that would keep him awake. It didn't work, and soon he was sleeping peacefully.

* * *

"God, he's just so shy!" Lenalee complained as she washed dishes.

Allen glanced up from the fork he was polishing. "What do you expect? He's been trapped her for a while."

Lenalee glared at her companion. "That doesn't mean he should be antisocial and lie to our guest!"

"Master Lavi isn't feeling well and is tired from everything that happened," Allen replied. "Master Kanda was probably trying to let him sleep."

"But how is this going to work?" Lenalee fumed. "Master Kanda sleeps during the day as do the rest of us. If he's awake all day, what are we supposed to do? Stay awake twenty-four seven?"

Allen set down the fork and put his hands in his lap. "I did what Master Kanda said to. We won't have to worry."

Lenalee stalked over. "What did you do?"

Allen pulled the girl into his lap. "You don't have to worry about it."

"You drugged him, didn't you," Lenalee accused.

"I put something in his food that'll wake him up in a few hours and keep him awake. Then he should sleep all day tomorrow. That's what Master Kanda said, at least."

Lenalee nodded, and Allen kissed her cheek. They then resumed their duties.

* * *

**That was a short chapter...**

_Very short chapter._

**We promise longer ones in the future.**

_Sorry! I promise there will be weird experiments in the next one!_

**Thank you for reading!**


	5. Wandering

Lavi woke with a start. There wasn't any reason for his sudden awakening; his eyes just sort of popped open, and no matter what he did, he couldn't fall asleep. He was exhausted still, but he just had to get up and walk around.

So he did just that. He got up and wandered down the hall. He poked his head in every room he passed. Most of them were empty, but some had pictures hanging on the wall or an empty bookshelf or something lame like that. There wasn't anything all that interesting until he found the bathroom.

"Holy sea cows**1**," Lavi muttered, amazed. The bathroom was just that: a _bath_room. The entire room was devoted to a dug out bath the size of a small swimming pool. Lavi turned the shiny brass faucet on, and hot water splashed out of the fountain next to it. He turned it off again, and the water stopped flowing from the woman statue's urn. Then, after glancing around quickly to make sure no one was watching, he turned it on again. He continued playing with the hot and cold water until he heard a laugh behind him.

"Ah! Um, sorry," Lavi said, thoroughly embarrassed. "I've just never seen a bath this big. It _is_ a bath, right?"

Allen chuckled. "Of course it's a bath. What else would it be?"

"A swimming pool?" Lavi suggested.

Allen laughed again, then asked, "Would you like to take a bath?"

"Would I ever!"

"I'll start it for you, then. How would you like your bath? Warm? Cold? Slightly chilled?"

"Warm please!"

Allen nodded and adjusted the faucets accordingly. The woman statue's urn spouted water. He walked over to another similar statue on the other side and did the same. "There are bath salts and bubbles on the shelf over there," he said, returning. "Pick something out."

Lavi happily obliged. He opened one jar of salts and frowned at the cinnamon scent. He put that one back, then opened a bottle of bubble bath. This one was rose, and not quite what Lavi was looking for. He took the one next to it and sniffed. "This one!" he called to Allen.

Allen smiled. "Of course," he said, pouring the jasmine-scented bubble bath into the water. It foamed up instantly. It was the same scent that the master liked, even if it was bubbles rather than the salts. "Enjoy your bath."

Lavi started stripping, but stopped. "Your master won't mind, will he?"

"The beast never uses this bath," Allen replied before shutting the door.

Ten minutes passed with Lavi happily splashing about and playing with the mass amounts of scented bubbles. He was having the time of his life swimming in the oversized bath. He didn't even care that his skin was getting all pruney.

He heard the door open and figured it was Allen until he saw the figure was _way_ too tall and had too dark of hair to be Allen. Panicking, Lavi sunk low in the water. _It's okay,_ he thought. _We're both guys with the same manly parts... Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all..._ Too bad his racing heart didn't seem to agree with him.

He heard the door open again, and when he looked, Yuu was stepping out. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"Sorry," he said.

"You can come in, too!" Lavi called. "More than enough room for each other."

Yuu froze. "I don't take bubble baths."

"Variety's the spice of life and all that," Lavi replied brightly. "I'll stay on this side and you can have the other side."

"I'll wait for you to finish."

"Chicken! Bawk bawk bawk!" Lavi laughed. "Come on, we're both guys!"

"I'll just wait." Yuu shut the door behind him. He leaned back against the door and took a deep, steadying breath. He had been watching Lavi, and he felt weird about it. He'd been staring at a _guy_ taking a bath. He had the sudden urge to bash his head against something hard.

"Master?" Lenalee asked, carrying some towels. "I was just going to bring you some towels. Why aren't you in the bath?"

"Lavi's in there."

"Oh," Lenalee said, knowingly. She walked past Kanda and opened the door. "Lavi, I brought you some towels."

"Thank you!" Lavi called. "Oh, and if Yuu's out there, tell him he's a chicken, would you?"

"I think he heard you," Lenalee said, hiding her amusement. "I'll leave these here." She set the towels down on a table near the bath and left. She turned to her master. "Chicken?"

"Shut up."

"Do I want to know?"

"Shut up."

"You know, your social skills are—"

"Shut up."

Lenalee stuck her tongue out at her master and walked away, leaving Kanda alone next to the open bathroom door.

Kanda heard a splash, and he turned and stared at naked Lavi. He felt the color rise to his cheeks and he turned away. _She did that on purpose! I'm going to murder her!_

"Yuu."

Kanda didn't turn around. "What?"

"Bath's free."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious."

"Jeez. What crawled up your ass and died?"

Kanda didn't answer. He went into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

"See you later!" Lavi called through the door before heading back to his room. He was tired, but he still couldn't fall asleep. He tossed and turned for two hours and at last started falling asleep just as the birds started chirping for morning. He cursed, irritated that he'd miss his opportunity to talk with the beast in the morning, but decided sleeping was a better idea. He closed his eyes, yawned, and started breathing deeply in sleep.

* * *

Lavi woke up around four in the afternoon. He stared around blearily, not remembering where he was. Then it hit him. He was in a castle with a beast and the quiet but deadly yet sexy Yuu. Lavi grinned and hopped out of bed. "Dude, I rock!"

He was in the greatest of moods as he skipped down the stairs, but he soon discovered no one was up and about besides himself. Confused, he started poking around again. No one was in the halls or out in the courtyard or anywhere he could think of.

Then he smelled something delicious wafting from down the hall. Lavi remembered he hadn't eaten since dinner the day before and followed the smell down the hall to a huge kitchen, where a man was stirring a huge pot. "Boil, boil, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble—"

"Hello," Lavi said, interrupting the man's creepy chant. "What's cooking?"

The man spun around, almost knocking the pot over. "Don't scare me like—who are you?"

"Name's Lavi. I'm Kanda's prisoner."

"I'm Komui, Lenalee's brother," the man introduced himself before going back to his pot of whatever it was. "You sound a little too happy to be a prisoner."

"What are you cooking?" Lavi repeated.

"Soup."

"Split pea?"

"Chicken."

"Then why is it green?"

Komui grinned. "I like to experiment. Want a taste?"

"Uh... sure?" Lavi accepted the spoon Komui offered him and sipped. "Hey, this is pretty good!"

"You sound shocked," the cook said, returning to his cooking. "Everyone's always shocked when it tastes good, even my dear little Lenalee! Why? WHY?!"

"Um, because it's not the right color?" Lavi suggested. He tried to sneak a little bite, but Komui blocked the spoon.

"This is for lunch. Breakfast's being taken out to the dining room already."

Shrugging, Lavi went to the dining room—he'd discovered it during his exploration—and sat down. Lenalee and Allen dropped their rolls and rushed over to offer Lavi orange juice and some food.

"I can get it myself," Lavi said with a laugh. He took the basket of bread and poured his own juice. "You guys eat."

The two servants sat down, relieved. They weren't used to having an early bird in the castle, and having Lavi awake just completely threw them off.

"So um..." Lavi started, "where's the beast and why did that Komui guy call this breakfast?"

"The master's nocturnal," Allen replied simply. "He'll be up in a few hours. Until then, we servants need to get everything ready for him."

"Then why are you eating?" Lavi teased. "That's hardly getting ready for him."

"Can't do much on an empty stomach," Allen replied simply.

"Why're you just eating fruit, though?" Lavi asked, spreading marmalade on another slice of bread.

"Because my brother, the cook, might poison him," Lenalee explained, eating about half her plate and pushing it over for Allen to finish. "He got Allen really sick once when he found out we were dating."

"You two are dating?" Lavi asked, perking up. "Lucky! Only guy that's ever liked me is an asshole who only wants me for sex."

Allen and Lenalee both almost choked on their food. "W-well, now I can see why you'd want to stay in a castle with a beast," Allen said once he could speak again. "I wouldn't want to be near someone like that."

Lavi grinned. "Oh, I ditched him on a regular basis. Dude's not that smart." He finished his breakfast, then stood. "I'm going to poke around the castle a bit, if you guys don't mind. See ya at lunch." He waved, then ambled out of the room.

"Wait! Don't go into the master's chamber!" Lenalee shouted after him, but she wasn't sure if Lavi heard.

Allen frowned and asked, "Should we go after him?"

"He wouldn't be stupid enough to go into the master's room," Lenalee decided. "He'll be fine."

* * *

Boy, did they underestimate Lavi. It only took a few minutes for him to stumble upon Kanda's room, and as manners weren't Lavi's strong suit after years with Bookman, decide to look around inside.

The heavy curtains were drawn, giving the room a dark, shadowy look. Lavi had expected a grand room for the owner of the castle, or at least one like his own, but Kanda's room was rather bare. No paintings hung on the walls, no vases with flowers decorated the single empty bookshelf or simple square table. A sword hung from the back of the plain wooden chair and a book lay open on the table, the only things seemingly out of place.

Lavi checked the book. It was a diary, he soon realized, written in tiny letters. The former Bookman apprentice shut the book. He may have been ill mannered enough to walk into Kanda's room without asking, but he certainly wasn't going to push it by reading the beast's diary. It didn't strike him as odd that the beast had such a thing or could even write with the claws. He was more preoccupied looking at the beast himself.

Curled up in a painfully plain bed was Kanda, sleeping deeply. Curious, Lavi came closer and leaned over the sleeping figure. The beast hardly looked monstrous while awake, and asleep he was no different. He had his arms draped over the bed like a sleeping cat. The beast shifted, revealing a bare, furry chest. Lavi, rather than be embarrassed by the fact Kanda was half-naked (Lavi could see Kanda's pant legs sticking out from below the sheet), was more interested by how _human_ the beast looked. Except for his catlike features, the beast could have been a human—a very _handsome_ human.

Lost in thought, he didn't notice the beast's ears twitch at the sound of Lavi breathing or the yellow eyes shooting open. He didn't realize until it was too late that his unexpected presence there shocked the beast into action.

Kanda swung out with a clawed hand. Lavi let out a cry of pain and surprise and stumbled back, hand over his torn eye patch and eye.

"Oh, God," Kanda said, scrambling out of bed. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"I'm fine," Lavi said, backing away from the beast slightly. "You just surprised me a bit is all."

Allen burst into the room with Lenalee. "I heard someone shout and..." He stopped panicking when he saw the beast wide-awake and Lavi still alive. "Lavi, why are you in here?"

"Er... poking around?" Lavi laughed nervously.

"Let me see your eye," Kanda said.

"You scratched his eye?" Allen shot at his master.

"On accident. He surprised me."

"I'll get a first aid kit," Lenalee said with a sigh. She left the three men alone while she went to search.

Allen sighed and approached Lavi. Lavi had other ideas and backed away from both of the castle's residents.

"It's fine, really. Just nicked my eye patch."

"Then let us see it!" Kanda insisted angrily.

Lavi took another step back and would've taken another except for the wall behind him. "No, it's fine. You guys don't have to see it."

"Why are you so determined to not have us see it?" Allen asked, pausing in his approach.

"Because you guys would hate me if you saw it. It's weird and—"

"You're telling a beast and his servant something's weird," Kanda pointed out. "I think we can handle whatever it is about your eye."

Lavi looked unconvinced, but let his hand and eye patch drop. He slowly opened his eye and blinked it a few times, letting everything get into focus.

His covered eye was as yellow as Kanda's, and the pupil was a slit, much like a cat's. "It's a demon's eye," Lavi explained before Kanda, Allen, and the returned Lenalee could ask about it or the eye patch. "Back in the village me and Bookman lived in before moving, I got blamed for everything bad because of it, from illnesses to someone being attacked by wolves. When we were chased out of town, Bookman and I decided it'd be best to hide it, so I started wearing that eye patch."

Kanda frowned. "Things could've been worse," he pointed out. He was trying to cheer Lavi up a bit.

Too bad the redhead didn't take it the right way. "Oh yeah? Try getting chased out of your home! Try losing every friend you've made or just not being able to make any!"

They turned away from each other, angry. "At least your father didn't abandon you," Kanda mumbled.

Lavi turned back. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Go back to your room."

"Come on, Lavi," Lenalee whispered, taking the redhead's arm. "He's a bit upset right now. It's not a good idea to hang around."

Lavi looked one last time over his shoulder at the beast. He did seem a little down, but it was hard to tell how upset he was before Lenalee shut the door behind them.

Lenalee lead Lavi back to his room, where she proceeded to fuss over the small cut over his eye. Lavi assured her that he could handle the cut himself and that it had practically stopped bleeding, but the maid refused to leave until she had thoroughly disinfected and put a bandage over it. Lavi wondered briefly if the beast's claws were poisonous and that's why she was fussing over him. When he asked, though, she told him not to be absurd.

"Then why freak out?" Lavi asked.

Lenalee closed up the first aid kit. "You know that scar on Allen's face?" Lavi nodded. "The master accidentally did that to him. I can't help but 'freak out' when someone gets injured."

Lavi lifted his bangs, showing the bandage. "Well, you can stop now. You've already overkilled this thing."

Lenalee blushed, and said a quick goodnight before leaving. Lavi, meanwhile, looked at himself in the mirror. His eye was still yellow and catlike, even after all his years of wishing it to be normal. He debated a moment about asking Lenalee or Allen to get him another eye patch, but in the end decided not to. Kanda didn't seem to mind, and he had a feeling Yuu wouldn't either.

* * *

**1 Yay to references!** _Shimmering Scales reference._ **READ OR DIE!!!!! ...Or have cake.**

**Well, Shim has moved across the country now. Updates probably won't come as often from now on.**

_I'm sorry I had to move clear across the U.S. I miss Salior terribly and I can't wait to see the reviews. Clap for Sailor for wrote this with little help from me. Please Review!_


	6. Garden

"Hey, Yuu," Lavi said a little awkwardly when he met the man at lunch. He glanced around for the beast, who was the only one absent. "Where's Kanda?"

"Yuu" set down his tea. "He never comes to lunch," he said calmly. "He tends to come for breakfast and for dinner."

"Oh." The redhead sat down and poked at the soup Lenalee set before him. The green color of that morning had been replaced by a reddish tint, but it was still delicious when he tried it. He hesitated a moment before asking Yuu, "You don't mind?"

Yuu raised an eyebrow. "Mind what?"

"My eye." Lavi wrung his hands under the table. "You don't care that it's weird?"

"Why would I care about something like that?"

"Oh, well..." Lavi looked away. "Nevermind. It's not important."

A silence befell the table, only broken by the clinking of silverware as they ate. Lavi glanced up at Yuu occasionally but would return instantly back to his food whenever the man looked up. _Come on... Say something!_

"So, um... It's a nice night tonight," Lavi commented. _Stupid! Of all things, the weather?_ He mentally slammed his head against something hard. His mental barrage would have to do until Yuu was out of sight and he could hit his head against something hard.

Yuu glanced out the window. "Yes, it is a nice night." He set his spoon down, and Allen cleared his bowl away for him. "Lavi, what are your hobbies?" he asked abruptly.

"Huh?" Lavi was surprised by the sudden question and almost dropped his spoon in his soup. "Oh, I like reading."

"What kind of books?" Yuu pressed.

"Well... It's a little embarrassing actually..." Lavi muttered, stirring his soup to give himself an excuse to look anywhere but at his current companion. "I like reading romance novels, especially the fantasy kind... You know, dragons and knights and wizards and that sort of thing."

He didn't see the smile play across Yuu's face. "That would certainly explain your excitement about living in this accursed castle with a beast," he said calmly.

"But this castle's amazing!" Lavi replied. "It's so big and grand and—"

"And you'll tire of it soon enough." Yuu stood and nodded a quick farewell before leaving the room.

"Why's he such a sourpuss?" Lavi muttered before finishing his soup.

Lenalee took the empty bowl and set it on the tray she was holding. "He's been in this castle for a long time," she explained.

"Right, he's a prisoner," Lavi said, remembering what Yuu had told him the night before. "Kanda lets me wander around, though. Is it different for Yuu?"

But Lenalee only shook her head. "You don't have to worry about it, Lavi. Why don't you go take a nap? You look a little tired."

Lavi nodded and headed up to his room. When he went inside, he found his room lit and a book sitting on his nightstand. Curious as always, Lavi picked up the book and flipped through it quickly. The novel was old and obviously well read, judging by the wear on its cover and yellow-tinted pages. Lavi shut the book and traced the golden letters spelling out the title.

There was a note on the table, which Lavi read through quickly.

_I'm sorry for hurting you earlier. Please, forgive me._

_I thought you might be getting bored, so I left a book for you to read. I hope that it is to your liking._

_Kanda_

Lavi sat down on his bed and opened to the first chapter.

* * *

Hours passed, and Lavi just couldn't put the book down. It had everything he liked: princesses, dragons, magic, princes in disguise... It was an hour before sunrise when he at last set the book down, the feather the former reader had used as a bookmark marking his page. Yawning, Lavi stretched and flopped back on his bed, all around comfortable and content. He closed his eyes thinking to take a quick nap before dinner, but something fluttered through the open window and landed on his nose.

Lavi picked up the white flower petal and stared at it wonderingly. It smelled sweet. _Lily?_ He thought before sniffing it again. _No... Maybe a rose..._ Curiosity got the better of him, and he went to the window and looked around. He could see a huge garden down below. He wondered briefly he'd missed something so big, but then realized that he hadn't looked out that window at all since he came.

Lavi took the stairs two at a time and ran down the halls, eventually finding the door that led to the garden. Stepping into it was like stepping into a dream. The trees were covered in blossoms, as were the plants on the ground. Lavi followed the brick path through the garden, careful not to step on any of the flowers. The air was heavy with their scent and again Lavi wondered how he could have missed something so wonderful.

Ahead of him, a shadowed figure crouched over one of the flowerbeds. Lavi stared a moment, then realized it was none other than Yuu pulling weeds and cursing quietly to himself whenever one happened to be prickly.

"Hey," Lavi called softly.

Yuu didn't look up and just continued to pull weeds.

"Hey," Lavi called, a little louder this time.

Again, Yuu ignored him.

Annoyed, Lavi came closer and shouted, "Hey!"

This time, Yuu did respond, though he didn't stop pulling the weeds. "I heard you the first time." He ripped a particularly large weed from the dirt and tossed it into the small pile behind him. "Can I help you with something?"

"I was wondering if you took care of this garden all by yourself," Lavi said, gesturing to all the plants around them.

A thin smile formed on Yuu's face and he went back to weeding. "It gives me something to do, I suppose." He pulled out one last weed, then stood. "What are you doing out here?"

"I looked out my window, saw this garden outside, and just had to look around," Lavi explained.

"Curious as ever, I see." Yuu started walked down the path, then paused. "Aren't you coming?" he asked.

Lavi followed Yuu through the twists and turns in the garden until they reached a stone bench next to a small pond. Yuu sat down, and Lavi followed his lead. The redhead waited patiently for his companion to say something, but Yuu just stared silently at the dark pond.

"So why'd you bring me here?" Lavi asked, his patience at last drained.

Yuu stood up and knelt next to the pond. "No reason."

"There had to be some kind of reason." He joined Yuu by the pond and stared into the shallow water. There was a huge gold fish in it. "What's the carp's name?" he asked.

"His Majesty," he said, perfectly straight-faced. He stood and brushed the dirt off his pants. "I'm afraid I have to go back inside now." A quick nod for a goodbye, and Yuu was disappearing behind one of the trees.

"Hey! Yuu!" Lavi called. He stood up and rushed after him, but Yuu was nowhere to be found. It was like he'd just vanished. _Maybe he's the ghost..._ Lavi thought, but shook his head. If Yuu _were_ a ghost, he certainly wouldn't have eaten lunch.

Shrugging, Lavi headed back to the castle just as the sun started to rise.

* * *

_I want a rose garden..._

**Well, there's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it as always.**

_**See you next chapter!**_


	7. The Mysery

A few days later, Lavi was finally starting to get used to the change in his day-to-day life. He didn't get up quite so early and would end up having breakfast with Kanda rather than Lenalee and Allen, which he didn't mind at all. He didn't try to wake the beast up anymore for obvious reasons, but it seemed like Kanda was striving to wake up before Lavi to prevent the redhead from being an idiot again.

Once the sun set, Kanda would disappear to somewhere or another, and Yuu would reappear. Then, when the sun rose again, Yuu would retire to someplace and Kanda would return for dinner, and then go to bed. The mystery of where each person went when they disappeared never made sense to Lavi, and though curious about it, he tried his best to leave it alone.

After about a week—he was losing track of time pretty quickly—Lavi asked Kanda if he had ever seen the garden. Kanda replied vaguely that he'd only ever seen it at night, and so Lavi was determined to get the beast out and about.

"So would you like to go outside with me?" Lavi asked innocently.

"Not particularly."

Lavi's face fell, and Kanda added hastily, "I'm just not a huge fan of sunlight."

"But you're a cat," the redhead pointed out. "Cats like sunlight."

Kanda growled quietly and closed his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. "I'm not a cat, Lavi. I'm a hideous beast doomed to live in this castle for all eternity."

Lavi slammed his hands on the table, making the plates shake and Kanda's eyes shoot open. "You're not a hideous beast, Kanda!" he said. "You're more human than half the people I've ever known and then some!"

The beast's face settled into a sad expression. "What you say doesn't change the facts. You ought to know that." He stood and went to leave, but Lavi rushed around the table and grabbed Kanda's hand.

"Kanda, don't leave yet," Lavi said quietly. "I'm sorry if I've upset you or something, okay? I just... wanted you to see the garden... A little while outside wouldn't hurt, right?"

There was a brief moment when neither said anything. Lavi looked up at Kanda, hoping that the beast would agree to go out, while Kanda looked down at Lavi, trying to think of a good reason why he shouldn't. "I suppose it wouldn't," Kanda said at last, making Lavi's green and gold eyes light up.

They went outside into the garden. The two walked together through the magnificent garden, Lavi occasionally tripping over an uneven brick in the path because he couldn't take his eyes off Kanda. His fur seemed to shimmer softly in the evening light, and his eyes almost glowed. _It was definitely a good idea to ask him to come outside,_ Lavi thought, unable to look away from Kanda.

At last Kanda noticed the awe he was inspiring in Lavi and decided it would be best to just sit and enjoy the scenery. Kanda took a seat on a sunny patch grass under a tree. Lavi, though, decided the tree's branches would make a better perch.

"So what do you think?" Lavi asked, letting his arm dangle lazily from his spot above Kanda's head. "Worth coming out here?"  
"I guess so," Kanda said, leaning back against his tree and closing his eyes.

_Just like a cat,_ Lavi realized. Carefully, so Kanda wouldn't notice it, he brushed his hand against one of the beast's ears. The beast stiffened, but didn't protest. He probably thought it had just been an accident. So Lavi did it again. This time, Kanda swatted the hand away and gave Lavi a cold look. When he looked away, Lavi ran his fingers over Kanda's ear again, this time eliciting a small purr. Lavi smiled. _Exactly like a cat._

Kanda jerked away from the hand and grabbed it without thinking, accidentally pulling Lavi from the branch. There was a brief cry of surprise as Lavi tumbled down and Kanda tried to catch him. The confusion resulted in Kanda holding Lavi tightly in his arms.

Lavi felt the color rise to his cheeks. This close, Kanda _felt_ human too. He could hear a heart beat, could feel Kanda's warm chest rising and falling with breath, could smell an almost human scent. The embrace felt so familiar to him, too, like something he'd once experienced long ago in a dream. He couldn't help it; he closed his eyes.

There was a cracking and tearing sound, and the warm arms that had encircled him released him just as quickly. When Lavi opened his eyes once more, Kanda was gone and the sun was just touching the horizon.

* * *

Lavi didn't see Yuu at all after sunset. Yuu didn't come to visit as he usually did, and he wasn't anywhere to be found at lunch. Lavi asked Allen and Lenalee, but neither of them had seen him either.

Confused, Lavi decided to check the garden. Yuu seemed to like taking care of the plants there, so he figured that's where he was. And that's exactly where he found him.

Yuu was on kneeling in a flowerbed, once again ripping weeds out of the ground. Today, though, he seemed extremely angry, and he seemed to be taking that anger out on the weeds. He wasn't methodical or even careful about pulling the weeds. If he saw a weed, he just tore it from the ground and muttered something angrily as he did so.

Lavi watched a moment, both a little startled by the pure anger radiating from the man and amused by the way he channeled his anger. "Is something wrong, Yuu?" Lavi asked, coming closer.

Yuu stopped attacking the weeds. "No."

"Then why are you so angry?"

"I'm not angry." His tone bellied his words.

Lavi squatted down next to Yuu. "Did I do something?"

"No."

Lavi pursed his lips and looked long and hard at the dark-haired man as if to say, "I don't believe you."

Yuu picked up on his unsaid words and replied, "You haven't done anything."

"So what's up?"

Yuu didn't answer.

Lavi frowned, then an idea popped into his head. He pulled Yuu into a hug.

"W-what are you doing?" Yuu struggled to get out of Lavi's embrace.

"Hugging you until you're happy again!" Lavi said brightly.

"Just let go!"

But Lavi didn't let go. He continued to hold on to Yuu until he stopped fighting and became resigned to his fate. "Better?" he asked, at last releasing the other man.

"If you ever do that again, I swear I'll kill you," Yuu snapped.

"You liked it."

"I did not!"

"I could tell you did," Lavi teased. "You're blushing."

Yuu stood suddenly without a word and stormed off angrily. Lavi watched him go, wondering if he'd gone too far with his little joke. He sighed and looked down at the flowers around him. He'd definitely gone too far.

Or that's what he thought until warm arms encircled him from behind. "Yuu?!"

Yuu didn't say a thing, but somehow, Lavi knew that it was him. The arms were warm and strong and familiar... Almost like he'd felt it before... Lavi closed his eyes, enjoying the embrace while it lasted, which wasn't very long. Soon the arms left him with a strange cracking and tearing sound following, and when he opened his eyes, the morning sun was barely visible over the horizon.

Something shoved him—hard—and Lavi fell flat on his face in the flowerbed. "Ouch! Yuu, what was that—" Lavi turned to face the other man, but Yuu was nowhere to be seen "—for?" He looked around, confused. It was like the he'd just disappeared.

_Like a ghost..._ Lavi thought, before shaking his head. _Nah, a ghost wouldn't feel that real. Besides, Kanda vanished earlier._ He stood and brushed himself off, pondering this bit of information. _Kanda disappears when the sun sets and Yuu disappears when the sun rises... I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!_

* * *

Kanda wasn't at dinner, confusing Lavi beyond belief. He asked Allen and Lenalee, but like with Yuu, they didn't have a clue where their master could have gone. The beast never left the castle, after all, and everyone, even Lavi, knew that.

Lavi considered this a moment. It was daylight, meaning the beast had to be _somewhere_ he could find him. It only took a minute to run through a list of where he could have cooped himself up. The top of the list was his room, which Lavi decided to poke around first.

And, predictable as every, there was the beast, curled up like a cat under his blankets. Lavi didn't get too close. He still remembered what happened _last_ time he'd woken Kanda. So, he stayed on the other side of the room and called, "Kanda! Wake up!"

The beast's ears twitched in response, and he sat up. "What is it?" he growled.

"Well, you weren't at dinner, and I didn't want to eat without you."

Kanda groaned and lay back down. "I'm not hungry. Go eat."

"Aren't you feeling well?" Lavi took a step closer.

"I'm fine. Now go away."

"You don't sound—"

"Go _away!_" the best roared.

Lavi flinched and took a step back. "All right, all right." He went to the door, but paused a moment to say, "I'm sorry for waking you up," before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

_Something fishy's going on here,_ Lavi thought, frowning. _Guess I'll just have to snoop._

And snoop Lavi did. He poked around every corner of the castle, but found nothing out of the ordinary. He went into the kitchen to ask Komui about Kanda and Yuu, but it seemed the cook knew no more than Lavi himself did. Lenalee dodged the question by saying she had something to do and dashed off, leaving Allen the only person left.

Little did Lavi know that Allen knew more than anyone.

"Hey, Allen."

Allen almost dropped the vase he was cleaning off. He caught it, though, and set it back down on its pedestal. "Is there something I can help you with?"

After the way Lenalee had run off, Lavi figured the subject of Kanda and Yuu's disappearances was touchy at best. Keeping that in mind, Lavi said, "Oh, not too much. I was just curious how Kanda happened upon this awesome castle."

"Oh," Allen said, going back to cleaning the vase and its pedestal. "His father gave it to him years ago when he was thirteen."

"I see," Lavi said, trying to feign innocent interest. "Why would his father give him a castle when he was so young?"

"It's because..." Allen fell silent. "It's not important, Lavi. If you want to know so badly, go ask Master Kanda."

"Kanda said to go ask you," Lavi lied smoothly. "He said he was a little under the weather and said to go talk to you about it."

Allen raised an eyebrow at Lavi, but seeing no reason for Lavi to lie about such a thing, he replied, "This castle used to belong to the master's mother." He turned back to the pedestal and started wiping the dust off it.

"Can I meet her?"

"She died giving birth to the master, I'm afraid," Allen said.

Lavi frowned thoughtfully. "But that doesn't explain giving the castle to Kanda so young."

"His father..." Allen hesitated, as if unsure whether Lavi should know this or not. In the end, he decided to give Lavi the vague response of, "The master was a constant reminder to his father of his sins."

"His sins?" Lavi repeated blankly. "What do you mean?"

Allen finished with the pedestal and stood. "That's none of your concern, Lavi. It's getting late. Go get some sleep." And before Lavi could press him for more, Allen rushed off and disappeared down the corridor.

_His father's sins..._ Lavi thought as he ambled back to his room. _What could that mean? Was Kanda's father a beast that married a human? Could that be it?_ A small smile touched his lips. _Love despite everything. That's so romantic!_ That explanation would certainly explain how Kanda seemed so human despite being a beast. If he was half-human, half-beast, it made sense.

Lavi reached his room and flopped into bed. _But that doesn't explain where Kanda and Yuu disappear too..._ His brow furrowed, but a yawn broke his thoughts. _I'll figure that out tomorrow,_ he decided before closing his eyes.

* * *

**That's it for this chapter! (sob) It's so short... Sorry!**

_Thanks for reading!_


	8. Festival

Time flew by, and still Lavi could not figure out the mystery of Kanda and Yuu. No one would drop any hints, and whenever he tried to ask directly, the two in question would dodge and change the subject before Lavi even realized what was happening.

And that's how time passed in the castle, with Lavi snooping and searching and Kanda and Yuu dodging any attempt at interrogation.

Before Lavi knew it, the leaves in the garden were starting to change color. He was in the oversized library with Kanda who was dodging another question with "one must be silent in the library" when he saw the first leaf drift down outside a large window. It was a crimson leaf, just like the sun and sky outside.

"Kanda, shouldn't you be pulling your disappearing act?" Lavi asked, a little irritated that his time with the beast was cut short by the shortening days of fall. It didn't take a genius to notice that the light was what caused one to disappear and the other to reappear.

The beast's head snapped up and he was out of his chair so quickly, the abused piece of furniture fell over with a clatter.

"Before you go..."

Kanda paused in the doorway. Lavi put on the best smile he could and said, "Would it be all right if Yuu and I went back to my village? The Harvest Festival's gonna start next full moon, and I really want to show him it. It starts after sunset so you can see the moon, so it won't be a problem for he-who-hates-sunlight."

"Very well," Kanda replied. "You may take Yuu, but Allen will be joining you."

Lavi put on his Cheshire Cat grin and waved goodbye as the beast dashed out of the room. _That was easier than I thought._ He'd been expecting that one of the servants—the most probable being Allen—would follow them to make sure the beast's not-quite prisoners wouldn't run away. And he'd planned to ask Kanda when he'd disappear for the night so that there'd be little to no arguing about the arrangements. _This is gonna be great!_

* * *

They left a week later in an old small black carriage that seemed to have fallen into disuse by an equally old carthorse that had seemingly come out of nowhere. Allen was driving while the other two sat inside the carriage. Nevertheless, they were on route to Lavi's village and the biggest bash of the year, and Lavi just couldn't wait.

They reached the town just as the festivities were starting, with all the game stands opening up for the kids to play and all the food stands ready to let villagers gorge themselves. The children who were Lavi's former spies ran around from booth to booth, shooting popguns and getting cotton candy and knocking down the milk bottles. But they stopped as soon as their old redheaded friend and employer walked into view with his dark-haired beauty in tow.

"Who's this?" one of the girls asked. She gave Kanda a cold look that didn't escape Lavi's notice, despite his being down to one eye once more.

"This is Yuu. He's a friend of mine."

"A _boy_friend?"

Lavi laughed. "No. Just a friend." He grinned at Yuu and said, "These little guys helped me dodge that annoying guy all the time." His grin turned to a frown. "Speaking of which..."

Yuu spun around and placed a hand on the hilt of his katana, ready to strike if necessary.

Thankfully, it wasn't necessary at the moment. The ever-irritating Tyki stopped in his tracks at the sight of the sword and instead said, "Hello, Lavi. Where have you been?"

"Oh, the ghost of the forest was protecting me from you," Lavi replied, sticking his tongue out at the one person he couldn't stand. "I wanted to come back to see if you've died, but guess I was wrong."

Tyki's eyes narrowed. "Oh, really? Well, I guess I'm your prince charming's here to rescue you from the ghost that stalls our love. After all, we could make some sweet—"

That was it. Yuu drew his sword and held the point just below Tyki's chin. "There are children here, you realize, and you shouldn't say such things in front of them. Now please leave."

"And who are _you_."

Lavi wrapped his arms around Yuu's neck. "My boyfriend. Now go away."

Both men stared at Lavi like he was some kind of alien. Then Tyki turned on his heel and stomped off angrily. There would be trouble later. That was a guarantee.

"What was _that_ about?" Yuu asked angrily when Lavi released him.

"The only way to get a moment's peace without you murdering the loser," Lavi replied simply. "If he thinks we're dating, he'll go sulk for the rest of the night before plotting how to 'win me back,' and by then we'll be long gone."

But somehow, Yuu didn't believe that. He had a really, _really_ bad feeling about all this, but Lavi was already off to show him around the town and booths, making it impossible for him to voice his premonition.

Their first stop was a game stand with darts and balloons. Bak and Fou were in charge of this one, and the prizes were candies and small cakes. Here, Lavi quietly sneaked up to the stand and jumped and screamed. Bak screamed like a little girl while Fou started laughing.

"Where've you been?" Bak snapped at his best customer. "I've actually had to deal with _Bookman_ since you disappeared!"

"I told you he's a slave driver," Lavi replied, grinning up a storm. "So how's the shop going?"

And this very same conversation ensued at any stand they stopped at. Yuu wondered if Lavi knew everyone in town, and soon discovered that he really did, through both business and his nature as a social butterfly. Worst, it took absolutely forever for them to get to the end of the street of stands because of this, and when they reached the end, Lavi tugged Yuu over to a makeshift stage that had been set up in a small clearing.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Bak called to the audience. He must've made his way past them somewhere in the endless see of gossip. "Boys and Girls! Children of all ages! Welcome to our yearly improv story book!" The families sitting on the wooden benches before the stage cheered. "This year, we're going to do Beauty and the Beast!" More cheering. "We need a volunteer to be Beauty!"

Lavi's hand shot into the air.

"Get on up here, Lavi," Bak said, gesturing for him to jump up. "Next, we need a Beast!" Lavi whispered in Bak's ear, and the bookseller nodded. "Yuu, could you come up here?"

He hadn't wanted to hear his name for this, but now that he'd been volunteered, there was no backing down. He trudged up on stage to show just how unwilling he was, but he was promptly ignored as Bak brought up a few more people and explained the rules of the improvisational theater.

"And if anyone wants to interrupt at any time, they're allowed to jump on stage and bend the show however they wish."

And with that said, the show began. At first, it was just any other play of the fairy tale until Lavi got his big break. Then things started going in crazy bizarre directions that Yuu was hardly comfortable with, and even though he would rather die than admit it, he was having a good time.

But then things got destroyed. Tyki decided to get his revenge on the supposed couple then and there and jumped onstage to do what he wanted.

"Oh Beauty," he said, grabbing Lavi's hand and yanking him away from Yuu in the beast mask, "run away with me and forget all about that hideous beast."

Lavi twitched. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

"Giving the story a happy ending," Tyki replied, looking as sexy as possible as he said it.

"Well," Lavi said, tugging his hand out of Tyki's grip. "I don't want to be saved from this 'hideous beast.' He's more kind and special than you'll ever be, Tyki!" And with that, he shoved Tyki off the side of the stage.

The adults in the audience gasped at Lavi's out of character violence, while the children all cheered, as they knew just how much the redhead hated Tyki's guts. Yuu, meanwhile, just took off the mask, handed it back to the slightly stunned Bak, and trudged off with Lavi in tow.

"Is there anyone else you want to see?" Yuu asked, looking up at the sky. The moon was still high and big and yellow, and there was no sign of dawn yet, but still, he didn't want to take any chances.

"Bookman," Lavi replied, leading Kanda down the kiosk-lined streets past a currently deserted church and up a hill to an old farmhouse. He knocked at the door, where Bookman was sure to be, as the old panda never went to the town's festivities.

And he was right. Bookman opened the familiar creaky door and stared up at the two. His face didn't change. There was no surprise there, nor in his voice as he asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came to check up on the old panda," Lavi said, his grin not fading in the least. "Been eating right? I'm not here to keep take care of you anymore so—"

"I lived years without you," Bookman pointed out, his face and voice betraying no emotion. He did, however, step aside and allow the two inside.

The place was spotless. Lavi froze in the doorway and stared around the entryway. It was just... too _clean._

"Surprised?" Bookman said flatly. "It's easier to keep everything tidy without you tromping through here after a walk in the forest. Plus, you're not leaving your stuff around."

Lavi poked the wall. "Yeah, but I never knew the walls was _this_ color."

"That's just proof you were slacking in your chores."

Yuu smirked. "No wonder you're so suited for castle life."

"And who are you, exactly?" Bookman asked, looking Yuu up and down. "A servant of the beasts?"

"Another prisoner," Lavi answered for him. He thumped up the stairs, and completely changing the subject, called, "You better not have cleaned my room!"

Bookman didn't reply to his former apprentice, though. He just turned and headed to the small kitchen. Yuu glanced up at Lavi's room, where the door was wide open and there were loud thuds as he tore the place up searching for something, then followed the old man to the table.

There he found Bookman pouring tea into three cups. "Lavi can be slow at times," the old historian said simply. He handed Yuu one of the cups.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm afraid he's so caught up in his little fantasy world that he doesn't notice things as well as a former Bookman's apprentice should." Bookman frowned into his tea. "Maybe it's a good thing you took him prisoner instead of myself. He wouldn't have lasted in the world of the Bookmen."

Yuu stared at the man. "So you can tell. How?"

"I'm trained in this sort of thing," Bookman replied without missing a beat. He wasn't worried in the least about this conversation. "I'm meant to see what others can't. Lavi, although he had a knack for it, tends to miss details because of his distractions."

"Hey, Panda!" Lavi thumped down the stairs with an old satchel over his shoulder filled to bursting with what seemed to be books. "What're ya talking to Yuu about?"

Bookman sipped his tea calmly, then said like a practiced liar, "Nothing you'd be interested in."

"That always means it's something I'd want to know."

His former master raised an eyebrow. "You really have an interest in Tyki?"

Lavi made a face. "Why are you talking about him?"

"Your... friend was wondering why that man was so obsessed with you."

"Oh." Lavi dropped his bag on the floor and sat at the table. "Did you make sure to mention what an ass he is?"

"That's your opinion. You know I'm—"

"A recorder of facts," Lavi finished for the old man. "Yeah, yeah, I know, but that _is_ a fact."

Bookman smiled slightly into his tea. "Again, that's opinion. It might be everyone's opinion but his, but it's still an opinion."

Lavi made a face. "Okay. Whatever." He took a big slurp of tea. "So how've things been without me around?"

"I've had a lot less time to study and record history since I've had to do all the market visits I always had you do." Bookman closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. He just looked so old all of a sudden.

"Are we keeping you up?" Lavi asked, realizing that it was very late, and unlike most people, they didn't keep a normal sleep schedule.

"No, it's quite all right."

Yuu finished his tea and stood. "Come on, Lavi. Let's go."

"Why? You gonna turn into a pumpkin?"

Yuu shot Lavi a look, but just said, "We should be heading back before Allen has a heart attack."

"Oh. Right." Lavi stood up as well and grinned at Bookman. "I'll be seeing you, then. Don't work too hard, you old panda. I'm not here to tell you the time anymore."

Bookman choked down a laugh. "As I said before, I survived before you, I'll survive without you."

Former apprentice and master held each other's eyes for a few minutes, an unspoken sadness and tenderness they'd never admit to going between them, and then they said their good-byes.

* * *

Outside the old farmhouse, they bumped into none other than Bak. But there was something wrong. He and Fou were always attached at the hip, and she was nowhere to be found. He also looked rattled about something.

"What's up?" Lavi asked.

Bak jumped in surprise. "Oh! Nothing. Fou went back to the store because she just remembered a new book in that series you like came out. She sent me to go grab you because she knew you'd be pissed if you didn't get the latest copy."

Lavi's eyes lit up. "Why didn't you guys say so?" He turned to Yuu. "You can head on back. I'll go grab my book and meet up with you."

Yuu nodded, but something didn't seem right here. Before, Bak hadn't seemed so jumpy, but now he was like a scared rabbit. Something strange was going on here, and he was going to find out what.

He waited for Lavi to get a couple meters ahead before starting after the two. Even walking, Bak seemed frightened. What was so terrifying about getting a book? Unless it was an illegal book—which would disappear with Lavi when they left—there was nothing to worry about, and even then it didn't warrant the fear in Bak's gait.

"So which series is it?" Lavi asked.

"That one with the dragon on the cover," Bak replied vaguely. There was something about the way he replied that sent up red flags in Yuu's mind. It was like the blond man was reciting something he'd memorized off a script. How could Lavi not notice? Was he really _that_ oblivious? Bookman had said something to that effect, but seriously, how could he not notice something so obvious?

"That's awesome! I was wondering how long it'd be until the next one." So that was it. Lavi was so caught up in his excitement that he either didn't notice or refused to notice. Either way, the redhead was being an idiot.

But Yuu missed his chance to stop them. They walked into the bookstore, and by the time he reached the door, it was already locked. "Damn it," he muttered, staring around for another entryway. There weren't any obvious ways in, and he didn't have the time to search. Then he heard a gunshot. Desperate, he drew his katana and rammed against the door.

* * *

Inside, Lavi stared open-mouthed at the scene before him. Tyki was inside the bookstore—someplace he'd avoided like the plague for years—with a pistol pointed to Fou's head.

"I'm sorry, Lavi," Bak whispered, eyes downcast.

"No need to be sorry," Tyki said, shoving Fou to the clerk. "You're just giving him the extra push he needs." He then aimed his gun and Lavi and started toward him. "And you, I hope, appreciate all the effort I put into getting you here. That bitch was a hard one to catch, after all." He grabbed Lavi's shoulder and forced him against the wall and shoved the gun under the redhead's chin. "Ready for some fun?" he asked, a toothy grin on his face.

Lavi kept a straight face, though. He'd seen Yuu following them. He just had to keep the moron preoccupied until he found a way inside. "I wouldn't want to have 'fun' with you, even if you were the last person on Earth."

Tyki removed his gun from Lavi's throat and fired behind him at the panicking Bak. "Leave through the back," he told Bak. "I'll clean up when I'm done, so don't you worry about that."  
Bak nodded, and with one last worried look at Lavi, escaped out the back.

"So where were we?" Tyki asked, ramming the gun back in place. Lavi let out a yelp. The barrel was still hot. "Oh, that's right, you were about to beg me to leave you with your virginity." His other hand, the one not holding the gun, traced down Lavi's side and slid to the zipper of his pants.

Lavi didn't move and kept his mouth clamped firmly shut. It wasn't because he was scared. It was because he knew Tyki would want him to beg, and until he started begging, the rapist wouldn't do anything too damaging.

Something banged against the door, making Tyki pause in his molestation. "Is that your boyfriend?" he asked, amused.

"He'll find a way in, you know," Lavi said, completely unworried. "That guy's determined, and he'll be in here soon."  
Tyki turned Lavi against the wall. "Then I should make this quick, shouldn't I? Wouldn't want your sweetheart walking in on us."

_Damn it._ Lavi had slipped up. Now Tyki was going to hurry into his doom. Lavi closed his eyes tightly.

"Any last words?"

The door banged open. Lavi turned his head best he could and tried to smile at Yuu. "Just one. Goodbye."

Tyki spun around, but couldn't fire his gun in time. Yuu grabbed Tyki's arm and lifted it so the shot he fired imbedded itself harmlessly in the ceiling.

"Drop the gun," Yuu growled, squeezing Tyki's wrist so hard that the man couldn't help but drop the weapon. He kicked it away into the corner, where Tyki wouldn't be able to reach it quickly. "Touch Lavi again, and I'll murder you. Understand?" He lifted his katana to Tyki's throat and held it there to prove his point.

For once, there was fear in Tyki's eyes. He nodded, and didn't even try to stop Yuu when the swordsman grabbed Lavi and pulled him out of the store.

"Moron," Yuu hissed as they walked down the deserted streets. "You should've known this would happen."

But Lavi didn't respond. How could he? The guy he hated most in the world had almost raped him, and it had been his fault entirely. He should've been able to see what was going on. He should've known, and yet he'd fallen into the trap too easily. Yuu was right. He really was a moron.

"You can still walk," Yuu grumbled when Lavi didn't answer. He was practically dragging the redhead.

Still, Lavi did nothing, and he continued to do nothing even when they reached the carriage and a really tired-looking Allen. Unlike his master, though, the servant showed a little compassion.

"What happened?!" he asked as soon as he saw the dull-eyed Lavi and the irked Yuu. The best answer he got was Yuu shaking his head, signaling him to stop not pursue the question further then and there. "Oh, I knew this was a bad idea from the start! We should've just stayed back at the castle and—"

"Shut up," Yuu said simply. He didn't want to hear Allen freaking out about what should have been, since it was too late to do anything about it. He helped Lavi up into the carriage and joined him inside. "Take us back."

Allen nodded and urged the horse into a gallop.

* * *

Lenalee was much more understanding of Lavi and the situation as a whole than Allen and Yuu had been. As soon as they entered with Lavi still as silent as a monk, Lenalee shuffled him off to the baths. She stayed with him, just outside the bathroom door, talking to him and doing her best to make sure he was comfortable.

"I'm sorry." This caught Lenalee off-guard. Lavi hadn't spoken since returning, and his first words sounded strange.

"Why are you sorry?" Lenalee asked automatically.

"If I hadn't been so stupid, I would've known."

"Lavi—"

"Don't," Lavi muttered. "Just don't. It _is_ my fault. I'm a moron. Even Yuu thinks so."

Lenalee sighed. "There's no use beating yourself up about it now. All that matters is that you're safe and sound here with us, and Yuu doesn't think you're a moron. He might say that, but that's because he worries about you."

The door opened. Lavi looked exhausted. "Is Yuu mad at me?"

"No. You'd know if he was." The girl frowned. "If anything, he's probably mad at the jerk who tried to do that to you." She took his arm. "Let's get you to bed. You look exhausted."

Once Lavi was tucked in bed and given some chamomile tea to help him relax, Lenalee shut the door and went to get a book. She planned to stay with Lavi in case he needed her. When she returned, though, she found Yuu sitting in the chair she'd pulled to Lavi's bedside, watching him in complete silence.

He noticed her and shook his head. He'd stay. Lenalee frowned. He gestured with his hand that he'd be fine. She nodded to the window. What about dawn? Yuu shrugged. He'd think of something. It wasn't like Lavi was going to wake up anyway.

Their wordless conversation over, Lenalee left. This was going to be a _long_ day.

* * *

_**This chapter was tough simply because we're so far apart and school's eating us. Sorry that it took so long to write this one.**_


	9. Confrontation

**So we've finally gotten together again to finish this story. …To tell the truth, I almost forgot about it.**

_I'm tired of the death threats. Let's just finish this thing already!_

* * *

Lavi awoke, feeling something soft against face. He cracked open an eye and got a face-full of black fur. He scrambled away, first in shock that Kanda was there and had fallen asleep watching over him, but then curiosity set in once more.

The beast before him was fast asleep, which made sense, since it seemed to be late morning. But while Kanda had always been impeccably dressed every time Lavi saw him, today his clothes seemed too small. Seams had popped in places, revealing more of Kanda's jet black fur. And what was even stranger, the embroidered jacket was the same one Yuu had worn last night…

Confused, Lavi eased out of bed so as not to wake Kanda up. This called for an investigation, and the best place to start was with Allen and Lenalee.

He crept down the long hallway to the kitchen, but the two servants weren't there. In fact, no one was there. _Well duh, it's almost noon, _Lavi thought, checking the grandfather clock in the corner. _They're all asleep._ But this was urgent, and there was no way Lavi would be able to fall back asleep until he solved this mystery.

This time, he headed to the servant's quarters in the heart of the castle. He knocked on the door, and when he didn't get a response, knocked again. He was about to knock a third time when a sleepy-eyed Allen opened the door.

"What's wrong?" the servant asked. "Did you need something?"

"Do Kanda and Yuu share clothes?" Lavi asked urgently.

Even more confused, Allen replied, "No. Master Kanda's far too big."

Lavi thought for a moment. Then why was Kanda wearing Yuu's clothes, if it was obviously not the right size? Did he have a similar jacket and just grab the wrong one somehow? He asked that very question.

"Of course not. So is there anything else I can help you with?"

After another few minutes of deep thought, Lavi asked, "Where's Yuu right now?"

"Yuu? Uh…" Allen looked like a cornered mouse. "He's… not here right now." "Then where is he?"

Lenalee poked her head out the door, shocking Lavi. "He's gone to fetch some things. He was worried about you, so he decided to make you feel more comfortable here with a cake. Just don't tell him I told you. And Master Kanda was worried, too, so he decided to watch over you in Yuu's absence."

"What the heck are you doing here? Aren't the girl's quarters—"

The maid held up a finger to her mouth. "Shh! If Komui finds out, Allen's dead!"

"So you two were—"

Her face turned bright red. "No!" She slammed the door shut, leaving Allen looking lost in the hallway.

Awkwardly, the servant shifted from foot to foot. It was so obvious that they had, in fact, been up to something. "Erm… How about I get you something to drink?"

"You sure you don't want to go back to Lenalee?"

His face turned even redder. "She won't let me in right now until you go back to bed… And somehow I don't think that's going to be happening anytime soon."

"Right. So, uh, how long has Yuu been here?" "As long as Master Kanda."

"Why?"

"He's a prisoner here, like you."

Lavi narrowed his eyes. "So if he's a prisoner, why is he allowed to wander around without supervision?"

"Because he isn't going to run away."

It was working. Lavi was finally worming his way into the juicy bits. "So what does Yuu do when he's not running errands or with me?"

"Sleeps?" Allen seemed to be getting lost in all these questions. Perfect for getting the truth to slip out, Lavi knew.

"Who is Yuu really?" he asked accusingly. Enough good cop, it was time for some bad.

"W-why don't you go ask him yourself?"

"Because he's not here." That answer inferred he was still in the castle.

"But Master Kanda never leaves." Allen suddenly realized what he said and went deathly white. "I-I have to go." He hurried away.

Lavi frowned. Wait, the way Allen was talking, Kanda and Yuu were the same… person. His eyes widened. How could he have been so _stupid_? He ran to the library and snatched one of the books off the shelves. He flipped through. No good, no name.

He grabbed another, and another, of the well-worn volumes. Nada. Goose egg. Another book, and he stopped his frantic search. He finally found what he was looking for. In the front of the book, in the neat scrawl he'd seen in the beast's diary so long ago, was the name _Yuu Kanda_.

"That furball," Lavi growled, still staring at the name, like if he looked away it would disappear. "Why the hell didn't he tell me? They're the same freaking person!" He wanted to punch something. He'd have to make do with throwing the book at the beast in question instead.

With the book in tow, Lavi stormed up to his room and threw it as hard as he could, beaming Kanda—or _Yuu_, he should say—in the head with it. "You liar!"

Kanda shot up and looked around. "What? What are you—?"

"You and Yuu are the same person," Lavi spat. "Why the hell didn't you tell me? Did you think I wouldn't figure it out?"

Puzzled, Kanda asked, "What are you talking about?"

"That book! Your name is Yuu Kanda. I'm not stupid. I would have figured it out."

"I just didn't want you to be afraid of me—"

"What made you think in that little brain of yours that I was afraid of you?" Lavi shouted. "And here I was worrying that I was falling—" he stopped. He'd been about to say that he'd been falling in _love_ with both of them. "I'm leaving. Don't stop me."

"But where will you go?" Kanda asked. "All that's waiting for you in your village is—"

"Not forever, moron," Lavi snapped back. "I'll forgive you. Maybe. I just need to think about this." He then stormed out.

In the soft rain outside, it didn't take long for Lavi to cool off. He was just wandering down the dirt path, looking up at the changing leaves. How could he have been so stupid, not seeing what that beast was trying to do? He was just toying with him, seeing if he could get Lavi to fall in love with both his dangerous side and the human form. Was he mocking him, too?

After a few minutes, the rain began pelting harder, soaking him through. He let it. He deserved this, for having been so stupid. Lavi looked up into the rain and began crying, his tears mixing with the rain hitting his face. How could he have been so foolish? Things _never_ turned out like they did in fairy tales. _Never_. There was no true love behind a monstrous face. There was no goodness in a prince charming. All there was was disappointment.

"So, can I save my damsel in distress now?"

Lavi spun around and raised his arms in defense. "What do you want, Tyki?" he snarled, all traces of the tears lost in the rain. Shit. He'd forgotten his eye patch. His demon's eye was where Tyki could see it.

Or maybe not. Tyki was up high on a horse, up twice Lavi's height. He smiled down at Lavi. "You look upset. Beast not work out?" He slid off his steed and lifted Lavi's chin. "Perhaps Charming can help."

"Go away Tyki, or I'll curse you."

Tyki didn't seem frightened of Lavi's demon eye as others had been. In fact, he seemed intrigued by it. He leaned closer. "I don't believe in curses," he whispered, pressing his lips against Lavi's.

Lavi pushed against Tyki's chest, tried to pull their lips apart, but Tyki was too strong. The hunter hugged Lavi closer, trying to slip his tongue into the other's mouth. That was _it. _Lavi bit down hard, making Tyki jerk back.

"Get the fuck off me, you ass hat!" Lavi shouted. "I'm leaving. Don't follow me or the ghost will get you!" He spun around and ran as fast as he could into the woods.

The rain washed away his tracks, even as his boots sunk into the mud in his messy getaway. By the time he'd reached the castle's gate again, not only was he soaked through, but he was also covered in mud.

When he entered the dining room, Yuu—Kanda, Lavi reminded himself—stood up quickly. The sun must have just set. "Are you—"

"I'm still not speaking to you," Lavi snapped, stalking past and heading up to his room.

What he found their surprised him. There were fresh roses, daisies, and other assorted flowers everywhere, and on the table sat a note which read, _I'm Sorry,_ in Kanda's neat handwriting. He threw it down on the floor and turned to Kanda, who was looking worried at the door. "What, you think seducing me will make me forgive you? And daisies? Really? You don't seduce people with daisies!"

The man was seriously confused. "I was only trying to say I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to say anything—" But Lavi had already thrown his arms around him and buried his head in the other's chest. "Lavi? What's—?" "Just shut up," Lavi whispered. "You don't get it at all."

"Then why don't you explain?"

Lavi looked up. "I thought all you wanted me for was…" Well, he wasn't sure what Kanda had wanted him there for. It wasn't like he had actually tried anything, after all. Maybe he was just paranoid because of his run in with Tyki.

Carefully, Kanda pulled Lavi close in a hug, not caring that his clothes were getting soaked and dirtied because of their embrace. "I would never force you into anything you didn't want to do," he whispered. "I care about you too much for that."

"How much?"

"So much I can't describe it."

"Show it then." Kanda gave Lavi a gentle peck on the lips. The redhead frowned. "Seriously? I need more than that to forgive you."

"You want more flowers?" Kanda asked, not understanding his meaning.

Lavi pressed his lips against Kanda's to share another kiss, this one far more passionate, more tantalizing. His message given, he pulled back and looked into Kanda's eyes searchingly.

It took a few minutes, but the message finally sunk in. "Oh."

Triumphant, Lavi led Kanda to his bed and pulled him down with him.

It started with more kisses, then moved on to hot burning passion. Lavi greedily tugged on Kanda's button-down shirt, trying to get it off. Kanda just popped the buttons in his haste. What was one more shirt after all the ones he'd destroyed, after all?

A hand traced up under Lavi's shirt, making the redhead cry out as the wet fabric ceased clinging to his skin. He threw his head back, exposed his torso for Kanda to explore, wanting more but willing to wait through the delightful foreplay—**1**

And then it stopped completely. Lenalee had thrown open the door, covering her eyes with a hand. "I know you two are busy, but that creeper's broken in to the castle."

From somewhere behind her, they could hear Tyki shouting, "I've come for you, my love!"

"Oh God, not him," Lavi groaned. "Can't you distract him? Give us an hour. Two would be even better."

"I'd love to," Lenalee replied, eyes still covered, "but he brought an angry mob."

Kanda cursed, moving a little awkwardly away. "Then what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"Obviously not do this at the moment," Lenalee replied, still not looking. "Allen and the others are doing their best, but there's only so much we can do against a whole herd of mad townspeople convinced that the ghost of the forest has taken Lavi to be a sacrifice to the devil."

"I would _so_ love to be a sacrifice right now," Lavi grumbled, still laying sprawled on the bed.

That actually made Kanda blush. Yes, he actually got that one.

"Moving on," Lenalee said, getting their attention again. "What should we do? There's no way we can fight them—"

Yuu stood. This had definitely killed the moment. "Let me get some proper attire, and I will introduce myself to our guests."

Moments later, both he and Lavi were down in the entryway, where the horde of townsfolk stood, dripping, wielding the stereotypical pitchforks and torches. Kanda frowned at them all. "What is wrong with you people?"

Tyki stepped forward. "We've come to rescue Lavi from you devil worshippers."

Lavi took a step forward as well. "Obviously I don't _want_ to be rescued, you cow." It was the best he could come up with.

There was an angry murmur that shot through the crowd. From what Lavi could make out, it was that he'd already been sacrificed because of his eye. "Where's the monster who's taken you?" someone shouted at last.

"No monster took me. There's only me, Kanda, and the other servants." He gestured to those around him. "And I'm here willingly. So if you don't mind, you all can go _home_."

There was a general murmur through the crowd. It seemed they trusted Lavi about wanting to be there. But Tyki wasn't buying any of this.

"Then what about the ghost?" he demanded.

"Uh, duh." He pointed at Kanda and Allen. "That's something they concocted so you all would _leave them alone_." He stressed every syllable.

Another conversation in the mob, and then general agreement that they ought to leave. Tyki wasn't having any of this.

"Then I challenge you to a duel for Lavi's heart!"

Lavi glared. "I'm not something to win!"

"But you are someone to defend," Kanda replied, stepping forward and drawing his blade. "I'll take care of him."

Tyki drew his own sword, which was far bigger than Kanda's thin blade. "Then let us fight."

The swords clashed again and again. Neither was gaining in the fight. But it was obvious after a few minutes who would win. Tyki's breath was coming in labored gasps, while Kanda seemed perfectly fine.

At some point during the fight, someone bellowed, "Twenty silver pieces on the ghost!"

"Roger, this is no time to be placing bets!" someone else yelled at him.

Tyki frowned. That seemed to tell him just how much trouble he was in with this fight. But he had a perfect plan. "Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" he called to Lavi, jumping back away from Kanda's blade. "After that passionate kiss we shared in the forest just a few hours ago?"

Kanda looked at Lavi. "What is he—?"

He paid for his moment of distraction. Tyki had whipped out his pistol and shot him in the shoulder. The bullet tore through Kanda's flesh, causing him to cry out and grip his shoulder in pain.

"Yuu!" Lavi dropped to Kanda's side. "Move your hand. Let me see!"

"He's done for," Tyki laughed. "So why don't you just give up on him?"

Kanda shifted in Lavi's arms. "Get your eyes checked."

A flash of steel, and then blood splattered onto the ground. Tyki choked, the blade run right through him. "Y-you…"

Lavi's eyes widened. "Yuu?" "I'm fine," Kanda hissed in pain, releasing his sword. Without the support of Kanda holding the sword up, Tyki fell, gasping his final breaths. "He won't be." Kanda then staggered to his feet, then groaned and collapsed.

"Yuu!"

* * *

**1** _**Ha ha. You thought we were actually gonna write it this time, didn't you?**_

**One more chapter to go!**

_Yawn. Jet lag._

**Yes, she flew this whole way just to finish this fanfic for you. :-D**

_Don't you just love me?_


	10. Epilogue

Sunlight fell over his face as Kanda opened his eyes. He groaned and turned his face away from the window. Where he found Lavi.

"Morning, sleepy head," Lavi teased, poking his cheek.

Kanda scrambled away, winced, and grabbed his shoulder where he'd been shot. "Don't do that! I could've killed you! Remember what happened last time?"

"You couldn't hurt me," Lavi replied, a lazy grin on his face. "You're in pretty bad shape, but Komui said you'd live. Just relax for a while." He moved and sat Kanda up in bed and then sat behind him, running a brush through his hair. "You'll be back to your usual self in no time." Sleepily, Kanda nodded. He felt exhausted. Komui had probably given him something in his sleep for the wound that made him tired. "You're awfully happy considering I just got shot."

Lavi chuckled. "You were shot three days ago. You've been sleep this entire time," he replied, separating Kanda's hair into sections.

"You're not braiding my hair again, are you?" "But it's so long and fun to play with," Lavi replied. "Besides, then it'll be outta the way and Komui comes to check up on you again. You've got a multitalented chef. I had no idea he was a doctor, too."

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed between them, only interrupted by Lavi's pleased humming. There was definitely something going on here. What was Lavi up to?

"Keeping something from an injured person is rather mean, don't you think?" Kanda pointed out to the redhead.

Lavi's grin widened. "Oh, come on, your injury isn't that bad. Just take a look."

Frowning, Kanda undid the buttons of his pajama shirt and stopped. His hands… were hands. Not claws, nor were they furry. He looked out the window. The sun was up. It seemed to have been up for a while. He pulled off his shirt and looked at the rest of himself. He was human. Completely, utterly human. He touched his face, then slapped his cheek lightly. He wasn't dreaming.

"If you want more proof," Lavi said, grinning in spite of the blush coloring his cheeks, "you can take off your pants too."

An uncharacteristic laugh escaped Kanda's lips, and he swept Lavi up into a kiss. At last, this nightmare of a fairy tale was over.

_And they lived happily ever after…_

* * *

_**NO SEQUELS!**_

_We can't afford to do another sequel._

**You guys would go nuts if we tried. :D**

_**Thank you for reading!**_


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